Many states, countries, and other organisations run lottery competitions. In a typical lottery competition, a player chooses K different numbers from N possibilities, normally represented by the integers from 1 to N. The values of K and N are determined by the organisers to provide appropriate odds for the lottery, given the expected number of participants. For example, in the United Kingdom national lottery (Lotto), N=49 and K=6 (excluding the Bonus ball). Each draw of the lottery selects K numbers. In many cases, the draw is implemented by placing N balls in a container, and special apparatus is used to select K balls from the container. If a player has selected K numbers that match the K numbers drawn from the lottery machine, this corresponds to the jackpot prize, while if a player matches fewer numbers, then a smaller prize may be payable. For example, in the United Kingdom Lotto draw, a prize is awarded to anyone who matches three or more of the numbers drawn, with the prizes increasing in size as more numbers are matched.
Lottery competitions usually involve significant amounts of money, and are subject to strict regulation to ensure complete fairness. Often there is an independent scrutineer to oversee the lottery draw. In some implementations, the K balls are drawn one after another from a container in quick succession.
Many lottery draws are televised, and may attract a substantial audience in view of the large number of players involved in the lottery. It is highly desirable for program makers to retain the large lottery audience for as long as possible, for example to maximise advertising revenues. However, this is difficult if the duration of the lottery program is based on the duration of the draw itself, which may be no more than a couple of minutes or less. In addition, as the lottery results become increasingly available through other media, for example on the Internet, there is a tendency for lottery participants not to watch the television show at all.
One approach to maintain or regain audience is to expand or enhance the lottery show with material substantially unrelated to the lottery itself. However, since there is no real link from an audience perspective between the lottery draw and the rest of the program, a significant proportion of the audience may decide to watch only the lottery draw portion of the program and to ignore the rest of the material (or perhaps vice versa).
Another possibility is to try to extend the impact of the lottery draw into the remainder of program, by somehow making the lottery draw an integral part of the program. In this case, an audience tuning in specifically for the lottery draw is more likely to stay with the program, since there is no abrupt transition to extraneous material, but rather a more coherent flow to the program. However, there are regulations to protect the impartiality of the lottery, and these generally imply that the draw must be performed in a standalone (and hence easier to verify) environment. This makes it more difficult for television producers to achieve a natural, flexible, and transparent integration of any additional program material with the lottery draw itself.
A further concern for lottery providers is that such draws have often been running for many years, and their participation rates are either stable or in decline. Accordingly, lottery providers are looking to stimulate renewed public interest in the draws. In addition, lottery providers are also keen to create and exploit any opportunities for additional revenue, ancillary to the main lottery draw itself.